Glitchless Living Dex Gold Trainer Card project

GLITCHLESS LIVING DEX GOLD TRAINER CARD PROJECT
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GEAR

GBA SP AGS 101
GBA SP AGS 001 with IPS 3.0
Pokemon Emerald EUR with new battery (RTC mandatory for berries, events and tide)
Pokemon Sapphire EUR with dead battery
Pokemon Ruby EUR with dead battery
Link cable
Computer with Eon Timer and Poke Finder (RNG manipulation)
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PHILOSOPHY OF THE RUN

Glitchless: I believe that doing a glitchless run is the most rewarding way since it is how the developers intended the game to be played. Only allowing the cloning glitch would already make everything too easy (Rare candies, Masterballs, etc.).

Living Dex: Might as well have them all in your PC and it actually pushes you to discover the game even more, especially the breeding part.

RNG manipulation: I find this to be a more elaborate and efficient way of hunting good pokemons. It is a commonly accepted tool for glitchless speedruns and it is still very rewarding to finally catch a good IV/nature pokemon. Used on Rayquaza to grind the league, Swampert, Latios and Metagross for the Battle Frontier.

No shinies: Since I was allowing RNG manipulation, I could have hunted some shinies as well, however I believe that doing so just destroys their purpose/rarity. I was hoping to maybe encounter one during the run, but it did not happen.

No Event Legendaries: To obtain the Gold Trainer Card you do not need Jirachi or Deoxys, all other Hoenn legendaries are present in the gen 3 games. Since this run was done on original cartridges, I didn't want to pollute them with any rom hack event distributions.
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RNG MANIPULATION

TID 01363
SID 18889

TID/SID were generated randomly, I did not look for a specific TID/SID.

I RNG manipulated the same pokemons as Werster: Mudkip, Rayquaza, Latios and Beldum. Please find his run and FAQ pastebin below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Z5PKLq_9s&t=1594s
https://pastebin.com/c796fkZT

For the RNG manipulations I followed Blisy's videos targeting non shiny pokemons with good IVs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1XfmKlSojY&t=732s

Werster's route is very optimized to finish the 1st HoF as fast as possible and at the same time build the Battle Frontier team. The only hickup was that he knows how to RNG manipulate catches (he catches Rayquaza with a pokeball) and I don't. If you want to RNG manipulate both Rayquaza and Latios, you need a way to catch them immediately to verify if you caught the right one. But there is only one masterball per game. I haven't found anything about RNG manipuation of catches and I believe that this is something that is kept in the dark on purpose by speedrunners. The only RNG catch tool I found was using an emulator which I did not want to use in this run. In order to tackle this, I used Ruby to get another masterball and transfer it to Emerald before completing the first league (as this is your starting point to RNG Latios).

The static Pokemons such as Mudkip, Rayquaza and Beldum are rather easy to RNG manipulate. Latios however was very challenging since he is roaming and took me like 5-10h with the Repel route 110 trick.
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1ST HOF AND BATTLE FRONTIER TEAM BUILDING - 20 hours

1st HoF was obtained with the RNG manipulated Rayquaza: Modest, IVs 31/26/30/31/11/26, Moveset: Dragon Claw, Outrage, Crunch and Fly

The Battle Frontier team was EV trained using Vitamins, the Macho Brace, 2 x Exp Share (extra one from Sapphire), unfortunately no Pokerus was found. Swampert EV spread mostly comes from the main story walktrough as he wass the lead pokemon. I used some EV reducing berries to adjust some of his EVs in order to have the same stats as Werster in his run (My Swampert was a tiny bit stronger than his 163 Atk compared to 160 Atk).

Latios, Lv 50, Modest, IVs 29/21/15/31/23/29, EVs 30/0/0/252/0/228, Stats 158/94/92/200/126/158
Metagross, Lv 50, Adamant, IVs 27/25/29/11/28/31, EVs 44/252/0/0/0/214, Stats 159/202/149/94/109/117
Swampert, Lv 50, Brave, IVs 31/31/31/22/10/30, EVs 44/148/28/152/48/90, Stats 181/163/114/120/106/81
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BATTLE FRONTIER - 50 hours
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1. BATTLE FACTORY - 20 hours

I followed what Werster did, I used RNG manipulation to be able to aim for strong pokemons for each set. Here are the targeted pokemon and respective frames for each set. I realized that my target frames were approx. 5-6 frames from Wersters.

Set 1 = 1814 Graveler, Houndour, Bayleef
Set 2 = 1834 Hitmonlee, Sharpedo, Arbok
Set 3 = 1856 Zangoose, Grumpig, Seviper
Set 4 = 2005 Espeon, Heracross, Flareon
Set 5 = 1647 Espeon, Heracross, Milotic
Set 6 = 1632 Starmie, Flygon, Electrode

Even with RNG manipulation it was the most challenging medal to obtain. I was quite new to the Battle Frontier I had to get used to the different BF pokemons: items, movesets, how to tackle specific pokémons, etc. I was using Bulbapedia a lot to check on weaknesses and possible movesets of the opponent's pokemons.

I probably did something like 10-15 attempts, mostly loosing around set 4-5. The RNG is brutal: missing moves, crits from opponent pokemon, very bad match ups. I found defensive bulky pokemons such as Blissey, Snorlax, Bayleef etc. to be extremely annoying, they need to be KOed asap, otherwise they just use Double Team and are basically untouchable.

It took me approx. 20h to complete and honestly I was about to give up when I reached set 5 on my last attempt. If I had failed in the last set of that attempt, maybe I wouldn't have finished this run. But the RNG gods were finally with me I could kick Nolan's ass. I was carried by Starmie in the last set, and cherry on the cake I froze the last pokemon I had to beat with Ice Beam. I was so happy to finally get gold that I even recorded the last fight on my trainer card. This achievement gave me the motivation I needed to get the remaining gold medals.
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2. BATTLE PYRAMID - 7 hours

I took the same Team and moves as Werster, see below. If I remember well it took me two attemps with a first death after 6 sets to a trainer with a Snorlax.

Here are a few tips I found useful:
-Always kill wild pokemons
-Do not search for the exit randomly, start by locating yourself on the floor and then sweep the floor from top to bottom or in a circle, making sure you don't pass in the same place twice.
-It seems that when there is an item on the floor, there is a higher chance that a trainer will guard it, so be careful. Same goes for spawning points and exit points.
-The item that helped me the most was Shell Bell. It helps you regenerate your HP so you can stack potions for difficult situations. During my run I was quite low in potions but quite stacked with PP items, so towards the end I just circled around killing wild pokemons to get regen my hp and recharge my PPs with the items. I was basically transferring PPs into HP thanks to the Shell Bell.
-For the final boss fight, I had Lum Berry on Latios, Choice Band on Metagross and Leftovers on Swampert.

Team: Latios: Calm Mind, Psychic, Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt
Swampert: Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Protect - Swampert needs to learn Earthquake as Marshtomp at lv 46
Metagross: Meteor Mash, Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Brick Break - Metagross need to learn Meteor Mash as Metang at lv 50, the rest is unique TMs
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3. BATTLE DOME - 4 hours

The Battle Factory was a good training for this, I think I managed in only two attempts. Thanks to all the accumulated BP from all the previous attemps I could get Choice Band for Metagross and Counter for Swampert.

Team: Latios @ Lum Berry: Calm Mind, Psychic, Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt
Swampert @ Leftovers: Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Counter
Metagross @ Choice Band: Meteor Mash, Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Explosion
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4. BATTLE PIKE - 3 hours

This was the only Gold Medal I got in one attempt. The team was the same as for the Battle Dome. I was always going straight and I think I was pretty lucky overall.

Team: Latios @ Lum Berry: Calm Mind, Psychic, Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt
Swampert @ Leftovers: Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Counter
Metagross @ Choice Band: Meteor Mash, Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Explosion
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5. BATTLE TOWER - 7 hours

The main reason this is very hard is because of the length. It took me a few attemps but don't remember exacly how much. 10*7 = 70 trainers is insane to beat in a row without dying. Again, thanks to the Battle Factory training and previous medals, I was already better at countering some bad match ups etc.

Team: Latios @ Lum Berry: Calm Mind, Psychic, Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt
Swampert @ Leftovers: Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Counter
Metagross @ Choice Band: Meteor Mash, Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Explosion
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6. BATTLE ARENA - 6 h

Very luck dependent on the match ups, I did not struggle very hard but had to restart a few times, probably two or three.

Team: Latios @ Lum Berry: Calm Mind, Psychic, Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt
Metagross @ Choice Band: Meteor Mash, Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Explosion
Swampert @ Leftovers: Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Counter
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7. BATTLE PALACE - 4h

Nature of the pokemons in the team plays a lot in their probability of attack. Brave nature with Swampert was very useful. Some moves like shadow ball and explosion are removed, Latios gets Surf after set 3. Swampert gets rock slide instead of counter.

For the last set with the boss fight it is important to start with Swampert to counter Spencer's Arcanine.

Team: Metagross @ Choice Band: Meteor Mash, Earthquake
Latios @ Lum Berry: Psychic, Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt (Surf) | Teach Surf after beating Set 3
Swampert @ Leftovers: Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Rock Slide
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POKEMON CONTESTS - 10 - 15 hours excluding berry growing time

I tried to look for the easiest way of getting those contests: easily obtainable berries, easily obtainable pokemon and movesets. I got inspired by the Smogon contest guide and another post from Smogon by Golden Blissey. I also used the Bulbapedia pokeblocs info.

https://www.smogon.com/ingame/guides/rse_contest_guide
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/gen-iii-pokemon-contest-discussion.3644419/
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9block

I immediately saw that the best solution to get good pokeblocs is to use the in game event with the Master Blender. Thanks to the pokeblocs table from Bulbapedia I could see that a few easily obtainable berries allow to get Gold pokeblocs when mixed with the Master Blender. Those are: Tamato, Rabuta, Nomel, Magost and Cornn.

These berries can easily be obtained by talking to the Berry Master and Kiri (Sootopolis), they give you two random berries everyday from which you can get the ones I mentioned. Also, you can save and reset your game if you're not happy with what they give you and they will give you two other berries at random.

These berries also grow quite fast in only 24 hours, it makes it quite easy to water them at each stage to max out the yields. In any case, you only need 6 of each berries. This is the first thing I did after the Battle Frontier, in order to be sure to have the necessary berries when the Master Blender appears.

While doing the living Pokedex, I triggered this event twice. It is randomly generated but if you spend a lot of time battling the league or else it shouldn't be a problem to get it. Everytime you finish a battle there is a small chance that this appears on TV.

Once the MB is here, you basically made it! Indeed, if you just get two perfect hits at the start of blending and don't do anything more, the master blender will still push the RPM to >150, resulting in lvl 57 gold blocs all the time, the obtained pokeblocs have a feel of 48 so you can give only 6 pokeblocs per pokemon.

The different boosting scarves are given by the president of the Pokemon Fan Club in Slateport City once the contest stat is above 200. Since the main stat is already maxed at 255 after the pokeblocs the boost from the scarf is most likely an overkill. But I still like to have the scarf on each dedicated contest pokemon.

For the Pokemons natures, I selected 4 natures for each contest that are beneficial to either the main or secondary and neutral to the remaining main/secondary stat.

With the set up below, the contests were very easy, I managed to get all in only one attempt!
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COOL

Cool: Dodrio, lv 37, Relaxed, Red scarf
MS: Peck, Drill Peck, Aerial Ace, Hyper Beam.
4 Tamato + 2 Nomel master blender lvl 57 blocs = 255 Cool, 100+ Beauty, 100+ Tough

Best Natures: Brave, Rash, Relaxed, Naughty

Find a Doduo in the safari zone, it will know Peck, level it up until lvl 37 without evolving to get Drill Peck, then it can evolve into Dodrio. Aerial Ace and Hyper Beam are available TMs in Emerald.

How to win?
1. Peck
2. Drill Peck
3. Peck
4. Drill Peck
5. Aerial Ace (winning) / Hyper Beam (losing)
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BEAUTY

Beauty: Torkoal, lv 30, Naughty, Blue scarf
MS: Sunny Day, Flamethrower, Overheat, (Fire spin).
4 Cornn + 2 Tamato master blender lvl 57 blocs = 255 Beauty, 100+ Cool, 100+ Cute

Best Natures: Mild, Rash, Hasty, Naughty

Find a Torkoal in the Magma Hideout, it will know fire spin (which is optional for the contest) level it up to lv30 to get flamethrower, Overheat and Sunny Day are available TMs in Emerald.

How to win?
1. Sunny Day
2. Flamethrower
3. Sunny Day
4. Flamethrower
5. Overheat
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CUTE

Cute: Barboach, lv 12, Hasty, Pink scarf
MS: Mud sport, Water sport, Water gun, Mud Slap.
4 Magost + 2 Cornn master blender lvl 57 blocs = 255 Cute, 100+ Beauty, 100+ Smart

Best Natures: Mild, Timid, Hasty, Calm

Catch a barboach in the pond next to fallarbor town, breed it to obtain a lvl 5 Barboach. Level it up to lv 11 to have all the moves (learned naturally)!

How to win?
1. Mud Sport
2. Water Sport
3. Mud Sport
4. Water Sport
5. Situational
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SMART

Smart: Banette, lv 56, Timid, Green scarf
MS: Curse, Destiny Bond, Faint Attack, Grudge.
4 Rabuta + 2 Magost master blender lvl 57 blocs = 255 Smart, 100+ Cute, 100+ Tough

Best Natures: Calm, Careful, Timid, Impish

The moveset is extremely strong but needs quite some preparation. First, catch a male wobbufet in the Safari zone in order to get Destiny Bond (Egg move). Catch a female Shuppet with the right nature in Mt Pyre. Breed the Male Wobbuffet with the female shuppet holding an Everstone, this allows a 50% chance to get the same nature as the female for the baby. Make as many eggs as needed to obtain a male shuppet lv 5 with destiny bond and the right nature. Male is important here if you want to pass Destiny Bond, Grudge and Faint Attack as egg moves to the Duskull/Dusclops used for the tough contest. Once you have the right shuppet, you have to level it up until lvl 56 without making it evolving to Banette in order to get Grudge, once shuppet learns it it can be evolved into Banette.

How to win?
1. Faint Attack
2. Curse
3. Grudge
4. Curse
5. Destiny Bond
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TOUGH

Tough: Dusclops, lv 37, Careful, Green scarf
MS: Curse, Destiny Bond, Faint Attack, Grudge.
4 Nomel + 2 Rabuta master blender lvl 57 blocs = 255 Tough, 100+ Smart, 100+ Cool

Best Natures: Impish, Relaxed, Careful, Brave

You need the male Banette from Smart contest. Catch a female duskull with right nature at Mt Pyre. Breed female duskull with everstone and male Banette. Get as many eggs until you hatch a duskull with the right nature, it will know Faint Attack, Grudge and Destiny Bond as egg moves. Level it to lvl 34 to get curse and let it evolve to Dusclops or not.

How to win?
1. Faint Attack
2. Curse
3. Grudge
4. Curse
5. Destiny Bond
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HOENN LIVING DEX - 25-30h

Big thanks to Techno Trainer on youtube who basically covers the location of all pokemon in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. Since I wanted a living dex I needed to always catch 2 or 3 pokemons and later level it up at the league which is the fastest way to level up your pokemons. Some rare pokemons only found at 1%, starters and gifts (Beldum) were bred with Ditto in order to get the whole evolution line.

The current Living dex is 201, the 200 are the Hoenn Pokemon and the other is Ditto (National) that was used for breeding purposes.

77 HoFs were needed to xp the living dex. Rayquaza as main, Exp Share, approx. 10 min per league, 13 hours total, 4 898 000 pokédollars generated (with Amulet Coin).

Feebas was caught with the technique explained by Techno Trainer in about 3 hours. I further evolved it to Milotic by feeding some lvl 57 blocs I made for the contests.

Sapphire and Ruby games were used to transfer exclusive pokemons and items:
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SAPPHIRE - 6 hours

I followed Wave Warrior's world record in order to be as fast as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyLQbG3bC34

Sapphire was used for: Extra evolution stones, Deepseetooth, Extra Exp Share, Surskit (bred in Emerald to get both Surskit and Masquerain), Meditite (bred in Emerald to get both Meditite and Medicham), Roselia, Lunatone and Latias (caught with the MB present in Sapphire).
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RUBY - 4 hours

Same walkthrough was used with Swampert as main, except that the game was first restarted 3 times in order to get Treecko and Torchic and transfer them before starting the walkthrough with Swampert.

Ruby was played until it was possible to get the masterball and transfer it to Emerald to catch Latios. It was also used to catch the only exclusive pokemon to Ruby: Zangoose.
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CONCLUSION

Overall it was a very enjoyable and very rewarding experience. In total, it took me 130-140 hours to complete. I strongly believe that it is possible for pros such as Werster to make a Gold Trainer Card glitchless speedrun in under 50 hours.

The 1st HoF and the Battle Frontier Golden Symbols can be already be done in less than 20h.

I estimate that you can finish the pokemon contests in under 10h excluding berry growth time, however you need good pokeblocks and the best bet for the fastest speedrun would be to trigger the master blender event which is a randomly generated event. I personally got it twice during this run, so I don't think this is completely unrealistic. Another limiting factor is the berry growth time. In this run, I used berries with a short growing time (24h) and good yields (2-4). This means that after 24h you could already have 16 out of the 30 berries I used to win all the contests in one attempt. I believe that with some more research and better routing, such as using some other berries from Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald you can come up with the fastest and most efficient way to get the contest stats to a competitive level. Indeed, max out the main category (255) might not be necessary, as you could also use the +20 bonus from the contest scarves.

The Hoenn Pokédex can probably be done in 15-20 hours depending on your luck. In my run I caught many extra pokemons to be able to have the whole evolution line. It took me 13h of league grind to level up all the pokemons from each evolution lines, I believe this can easily be reduced to 5-7h if you target only one pokemon from each evolution line. Furthermore, you could use the experience boost obtained when trading pokemons. In this run I wanted to get as many pokemons as possible directly from Emerald, but you could trade most pokemon from Ruby and Sapphire to Emerald in order to xp them faster.

Of course playing 50h straight is quite hardcore, but this would be the ultimate Emerald speedrun and I hope it happens one day!
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NEXT STEPS

There are still a few things I would like to do on this Emerald save such as:

-EV train Rayquaza, who has amazing IVs but very poor EV spread due to the League.
-Go for the 100 wins in a row at the battle tower in order to get the gold shield from Scott, I currently am at 70 (Gold Medal).
-Continue the living dex with the national pokemons available in Emerald
-Establish a secret base with a beautiful Charizard Doll, the glass ornament and two BF shields (hopefully).